Warnth and A Warning ...

Warmth, and a warning, in Chinese leader's visit to Japan
By Norimitsu Onishi
Thursday, April 12, 2007

TOKYO: In a rare address to the Japanese Parliament by a Chinese leader, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China pledged friendship with Japan on Thursday but also cautioned that Tokyo must match its past apologies for its wartime aggression with concrete actions.

Wen said that his three-day visit to Japan was meant to "melt the ice" in the relations between the two countries, which have locked horns in recent years over the development of natural resources, leadership in East Asia and the history of Japanese militarism in China.

Japanese leaders praised "as very positive" the contents of Wen's address, the first in 22 years by a Chinese leader in Japan's Parliament.

In his speech, which was broadcast live in both nations, Wen said the countries' "economies are highly complementary and have a great potential for cooperation." He thanked Japan for its "support and assistance" in China's reform and modernization, in a nod to Japanese officials who have long complained that Japan's massive aid over the past two decades has been continually played down by Beijing.

Wen's visit was the first in nearly seven years by a Chinese leader, and followed a fence-mending trip to Beijing last fall by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. China's top leaders had refused to come here because of the annual visits by the former prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, to the Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial to Japan's war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals from World War II.

Both countries have appeared to make great efforts to improve ties, though so far, there have been no breakthroughs in the most contentious issues bedeviling their relations.

The Japanese government had eagerly anticipated Wen's visit, particularly since Abe's initial success in defusing tensions with China has been one of his rare achievements during his half-year in office. Abe's approval ratings have kept sliding because of a series of scandals in his government and his perceived weak leadership.

Wen's failure, so far, to mention directly the Yasukuni Shrine, as well as Abe's recent denial of the military's coercion of women into sex slavery during World War II, is likely to have come as a relief to his hosts. He raised the history-related problems that have been at the heart of the disputes between the countries, but avoided the bitter tone and finger-pointing that accompanied a visit here by Jiang Zemin, the former president, in 1998.

"The Japanese government and Japanese leaders have stated many times their stance on history-related problems, publicly acknowledged their invasion, and expressed their deep remorse and regret to victimized nations," Wen said in Parliament. "That is something that the Chinese government and people regard positively."

But he added: "We sincerely hope that Japan will show in concrete ways their expressed attitudes and promises."

The last comment appeared to be a warning against Abe not to visit the Yasukuni Shrine, an impression reinforced by Wen's other comments that "only a handful of militarists" in Japan were responsible for the war in China and that the Japanese people, like the Chinese, were "victims of the war."

Wen was reiterating an interpretation of the war that Beijing adopted when it began normalizing relations with Japan in the early 1970s and believed was shared by Tokyo. But the Yasukuni Shrine's subsequent enshrinement of the war's top leaders upended that interpretation.

On Thursday morning, Wen went for a 30-minute jog in Yoyogi Park here, surprising passers-by, and even joined a group of people in a tai chi session. In the afternoon, he met business leaders and urged them to invest in China, which is Japan's top trading partner.

On Friday, he is scheduled to visit Kyoto, where he is expected to meet with business leaders and college students.

International Herald Tribune